Favorite Friday

Hello Gals, and welcome to the second installment of Favorite Friday! Be sure to comment if you are playing along so we can all check it out! (And thanks for the great response on my simple little idea.)

Today, my Favorite is my new framed art!

A Sydney original. Mounted in an 11x14 frame with a museum mat.

Museum style mats are another favorite for me. I think they can make even the simplest picture seem very important and can help focus your eye a bit more.

My Favorite little artist is very excited to see her work on permanent display too!

Have a great Friday all!!

Patchy Pouch

Several weeks ago Katherine posted a photo of her WIPs. I zoomed in to snoop and saw a beautiful quilted zippered pouch, made from scraps no less. It inspired me to start one of my own. Mine isn't made from scraps, but it is all from my stash. I actually picked out the fabric based on the zippers I had available.

I love zippered pouches. They are a quick and easy project, they don't take much fabric, and who doesn't love a cute little bag? I had fun playing with some patchwork ideas on this one. It seems so simple and easy when it's this size!


The front and back are the same on this pouch. I always end up hand sewing the lining. It's the only way I can get it to look nice and be straight. Anybody else have better luck at that?

Happy Tuesday folks! Hope you had a great weekend. Ours was good, lots of company, but I managed to keep a date with some girlfriends for some crafty time on Saturday. I had a great time! I worked on some cards for upcoming occasions. But mostly we just made a gigantic mess! Isn't that the best part?

Here is a shot of our progress mid-day!

And here are the cards I accomplished. Not a ton, but I like how they turned out.

I've been working on my next batch of pendants for my etsy shop. Watch for updates in March! (I had to go check my calendar to see when that is...Saturday!)

Have a great day!

Favorites...

I think I will be starting a new series around here - Favorites Friday. Fridays are always hard days to blog for me. So hopefully this will help.

For the first installment, I wanted to show off my magazine rack. It is solid wood and weighs a ton, which is good because my kid likes to crawl up the shelves. It came from a library in Minneapolis. I purchased this second hand at least 6 years ago for $20. For the first 3 years I owned it I had it in storage, but I knew it was something special. And now, it has found a perfect home in our family room, right between 2 windows. Last Fall I decided to "feature" some season or holiday themed books here for Sydney. Here is the rack with all of our favorite Christmas/Winter books. A lot of these were gifts, some thrifted. Our two favorite additions this year were The Big Snow and White Snow, Bright Snow. Both oldies but goodies!!

I recently switched over to Spring books. We don't have many of those, so these are mostly library books.

Here are a few we are really looking forward to reading!

(I barely got this shot in before it got snatched away!! Look close though, the illustrations are all cut paper!)

I got a lot of grief when I bought this piece, and even more grief while it hogged all the storage space in our basement, but now I am so happy that we have it and I think my husband finally realizes the vision I had for it all along. (It takes him a while to come around, but he usually does!!) So there it is - Favorites Friday! I would love for you to join in, show us your favorite book, recipe, thrifted find, fabric, etc.! Be sure to leave a link in the comments if you decide to play along!

SPRING....

So, what's the best way to beat the winter blahs and THINK SPRING??

Finding the latest issue of Marie Claire Idees in the mailbox!

I treated myself to a subscription a couple months ago and my first issue arrived yesterday. I was so excited. My husband thinks I'm nuts. He has no clue why I would want a magazine I can't read (it's all in French.) This issue is chock full of bright colors, flowers and tons of Spring inspiration!

Here is just a small dose of some of my favorite things. (I kept the pictures small in the post, but you should be able to click on each of them to zoom in.)

See those bowls on the wall? Fabric. Isn't that a great idea?!


The appliqued flowers on this are too cute. And a great way to cover up corners that don't quite match up for us beginner quilters!



I keep seeing cool clocks all over the place lately. (Do you ever wonder if that stuff is always there & your eye is just noticing it now?) Here are just a couple made from cookware ...


I love the doors on this pantry - what a great way to keep your favorite recipes close, just glue them on!


I'm sure someone could enlighten us on the days of the week in French.


The kids stuff in here just made me swoon. So many cute, but simple things! Zoom in and check out the crocheted watering can & flower.

Zoom in on this one too and check out that crocheted cuckoo clock! Just too cute!


There now, don't you feel warmer already? We actually hit a record low this morning in Fargo. Thank God the magazine showed up just in the nick of time!

The post where I complain about the weather...

Oh wait, isn't that every post? Maybe not that bad yet, but close. Anyway, it's cold here. Really cold. And cloudy. Well, actually it's dark right now, but I'm assuming it's still cloudy. I just got back from grocery shopping. I couldn't bear the thought of taking my kid out in this weather, so I had to wait until after supper to venture out. The only good thing about it was that no one else was crazy enough to be shopping tonight, so it was fast. A bank sign I drove by said the temperature was -19 degrees (yep, that's Fahrenheit people) and they are predicting the wind chill to be down in the -50's. Now that's cold.

So to combat the cold I am planning Sydney's spring and summer wardrobe. I haven't actually completed anything yet though, so I thought I would show you these pants I made her a couple months ago.

They are a very simple design, but I like the addition of the lace around the bottom. I think it takes away from the homemade look of the pants. We've gotten a ton of compliments on them, but we are anxious to pack them away and get cracking on some shorts! Tomorrow I promise I'll be thinking Spring. No more complaining!

So Far So Good!

Mitten, mitten whose got the mitten? Well, nobody I guess, they aren't done yet. As you may recall, I started a new knitting class on the 7th of February. We are knitting mittens to be felted. I learned so much in the first class! So much in fact that I have one mitten almost done! I just have to learn how to finish up the thumb when we meet again this Thursday.

And here is my WIP on the second mitten. So far so good! The double pointed needles are very intimidating. I was worried I was going to poke my eye out right away. But they really aren't hard. (Oh, and bamboo needles are incredible!! All my future needle purchases will be bamboo.)

Sorry it's so hard to see any details in these pictures. Black yarn was probably not a good choice when trying to learn something new. Hopefully I will soon be able to show you a finished pair!

Another Valentine...

Yet another Valentine project to share! A simple picture book to send off to the grandparents and great-grandparents in our lives (and a very special great-great aunt!) My sister and I combined forces on this one, so the books include pictures of all of our kids as well as some fun valentine/winter themed pictures.





The front and back covers are made from either leftover matboard pieces or recycled cardboard covered with fun paper. The cardstock pages and covers are all hooked together with a book ring. Super simple, but really cute I think!




Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's

My Valentine's have been sent off on their way so now I figure I can share them with you!

They are simple, but fun. An origami heart with a simple flat card stuck inside. The heart design was from an origami book from the library, I'm sorry I don't recall which one. I'm sure it's a pretty common pattern. The hearts can be reused as a bookmark.

The polka-dot paper is from Paper-Source. I am in love with it and quite proud of myself for using it up. The colors are a little outside the typical pink and red of Valentine's day, but they look bright and springy to me. The envelopes are also handmade from brown postal paper. If you've never made your own envelopes you should definitely try it. Very simple, just disassemble an envelope you have on hand and adjust the dimensions to fit your card.

Kid versions of the valentine were made from a quarter sheet of origami paper. They ended up really small and cute! I made little paper books and stuck the valentine inside. I also included a Valentine pencil that I picked up last year on clearance.

On a different note, I just got flowers delivered to me! I was completely surprised and had no clue who they could be from. My husband? No. A friend, family member? Nope! A long lost love hoping to rekindle an old flame? Hope not!

They were from my husband's office! He has been working constantly lately, with multiple meetings every evening. And I guess his office just wanted to keep me happy and not go off on him when he shows up tomorrow and has forgotten that its even Valentine's Day. Odd, but nice I guess. Is this supposed to mean my husband's off the hook? Is it weird that I feel a little manipulated like this is supposed to make it all okay? Or am I over thinking it and I should just say thanks and appreciate the fact that they do realize he has a family at home. Probably the latter.

Hope your planning for a sweet Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Twin Turtles

My husband's cousin is expecting twin boys any day now. What a great excuse to try out the soft turtle buddy pattern from the Bend the Rules Sewing book! Aren't they the cutest?

Now that I've got 2 under my belt, they are pretty easy. I have plans to make a girl version for Sydney who insisted she needed one too. I'm going to make her's a bit larger than these 2. Those tiny pieces are just annoying to turn and stuff. To give you a sense of the size, the body of the turtle fits in the palm of my hand.

The patterns calls for eyes made from felt, but I really liked them without.

I think it's hard to think up good handmade gifts for boys, so I'm definitely happy to have found this pattern. I'm sure you will be seeing more of these, at least until Sydney is satisfied!

Picture Book

My Dad's birthday was on Saturday and now that he has received his gift I can share it with you. I decided to make him a mini scrapbook of pictures of him and Sydney from the past year. It was short and simple but I think he liked it. Sydney loved looking through it, which shows me how bad I really need to do a scrapbook for her. She would love it. Anyway, here are the pages from the book. You should be able to zoom in and check out each page.











(I scanned the original paintings that Sydney has done and just had them printed with my pictures. I think they turned out pretty good!)




The mini scrapbook I used came from the dollar aisle at Target last summer. I ended up using about 4 pieces of paper total, so definitely a great project on a budget!

Happy Birthday Dad!